Absorption and emission of far-IR radiation by hot holes in GaAs/AlGaAs quantum wells

It is found that when holes in GaAs/Al_0.5Ga_0.5As quantum wells are heated by a longitudinal electric field, the absorption in the far-IR region of the spectrum changes. The spontaneous emission spectrum in the far-IR range is measured. It is shown that the absorption and emission are due to direct intersubband transitions of holes near the peaks in the reduced density of states. The experimental data are in agreement with a theoretical calculation. Pis’ma Zh. éksp. Teor. Fiz. 63, No. 12, 928–932 (25 June 1996)     

Transport relaxation time and quantum lifetime in selectively doped GaAs/AlAs heterostructures

Low-temperature dependences of the transport relaxation time (τ_tr) and quantum lifetime (τ_q) on the density of the two-dimensional electron gas (n _e ) in GaAs quantum wells with AlAs/GaAs lateral superlattice barriers have been studied. An exponential increase in the quantum lifetime with increasing electron density has been observed. It has been shown that the sharp increase in the quantum lifetime correlates with the appearance of X electrons in the AlAs/GaAs lateral superlattice barriers. It has been established that the ratio of the transport relaxation time to the quantum lifetime in the studied structures nonmonotonically depends on the density: the ratio τ_tr/τ_q first increases linearly with n _e and then decreases. This behavior is not described by the existing theories.     

Inelastic scattering processes in GaAs/n-AlGaAs selectively doped heterojunctions with InGaAs quantum dots

Inelastic scattering processes of the two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) in both normal and inverted n-AlGaAs/GaAs heterojunction FET structures have been studied, for the case where InGaAs dots are embedded in the vicinity of GaAs channel. By analyzing the magnetoresistance data, the inelastic scattering time τ_in is determined as a function of the concentration N_2D of 2D electrons and shown to be reduced by 10–40% by the presence of InGaAs dots. By investigating a GaAs/n-AlGaAs inverted heterojunction FET with embedded InGaAs dots, we have varied the percentage P_oc of charged dots filled with an electron and found that τ_in decreases as P_oc increases, indicating that the inelastic scattering rate of 2DEG by charged dots is higher than that by the neutral ones.     

Giant population inversion of hot electrons in GaAs/AlAs type heterostructures with quantum wells

The heating of electrons in an Al_xGa_1−x As/GaAs (x>0.42) heterostructure in a lateral (directed along the heterointerfaces) electric field is studied. Population inversion on the size-quantization subbands of the Γ valley of GaAs and a giant population inversion between the X-valley states of Al_xGa_1−x As and Γ-valley states of GaAs are predicted. The possibility of using these inversions for achieving stimulated IR emission is discussed. Pis’ma Zh. éksp. Teor. Fiz. 68, No. 1, 73–77 (10 July 1998)     

Electroluminescence from modulation-doped pseudomorphic AlGaAs/InGaAs/GaAs quantum wells

Low-temperature electroluminescence (EL) is observed in n-type modulation-doped AlGaAs/InGaAs/GaAs quantum well samples by applying a positive voltage between the semitransparent Au gate and alloyed Au-Ge Ohmic contacts made on the top surface of the samples. We attribute impact ionization in the InGaAs QW to the observed EL from the samples. A redshift in the EL spectra is observed with increasing gate bias. The observed redshift in the EL spectra is attributed to the band gap renormalization due to many-body effects and quantum-confined Stark effect.     

Photoluminescence saturation in InGaAs/GaAs single quantum wells

Saturation of the photoluminescence associated with the 11H transition in the InGaAs single quantum wells is observed under high intensity optical excitation. At the onset of saturation, a spill-over of the photoluminescence occurs into the GaAs cladding layers as the excitation intensity is increased. The measurements are used to determine a limiting value of the quantum efficiency of the quantum-well associated photoluminescence.     

Combined cross-sectional STM/AFM in liquid: Study of InGaAs/GaAs heterostructures with quantum wells and dots

Combined scanning tunneling and atomic force microscopy (STM/AFM) of cross-sectional cleavages in a protective liquid medium (oil) is applied to study InGaAs/GaAs heterostructures with quantum wells and dots. It is shown that the quantum wells and dots can be visualized on cleavages in both AFM and STM modes and to measure the current-voltage characteristics of the contact between an AFM probe and the cleavage surface.     

Lineshape analysis of photoreflectance spectra from InGaAs/GaAs quantum wells

The fundamental optical transitions in In_0.15Ga_0.85As/GaAs single symmetric quantum wells (QWs) are studied through photoreflectance (PR) measurements and their dependence on the well distance from the surface. A phase rotation of the lineshape of the PR signal is observed as was predicted in our previous works. PR spectra of several samples, measured at 77 K, are compared with results of PR lineshape calculations, and a fairly good agreement is found. The quantum-confined Stark effect is shown to be the dominant modulation mechanism in the QW. Pronounced interference effects make PR spectra from QWs sensitive to the cap layer thickness.     

Absorption and emission of terahertz radiation in doped GaAs/AlGaAs quantum wells

Spontaneous emission of terahertz radiation from structures with GaAs/AlGaAs quantum wells in a longitudinal magnetic field has been studied. It is shown that some bands in the emission spectrum can be related to radiative electron transitions between resonant and localized impurity states, as well as to the transitions with participation of subband states. The temperature dependence of the equilibrium intraband absorption of terahertz radiation and its modulation in a longitudinal electric field in GaAs/AlGaAs quantum wells has been investigated.     

Partial intermixing of strained InGaAs/GaAs quantum wells

Shallow ion implantation and rapid thermal annealing (RTA) was used to modify the optical properties of strained InGaAs/GaAs quantum wells (QWs). After RTA, QW exciton energies, determined from peak positions of the photoluminescence spectra, shifted significantly to higher energies in the implanted areas, whereas they remained basically unaffected in the unimplanted regions. The magnitudes of the energy shifts depend on the well width, RTA temperature and ion implantation fluence. The shifts were interpreted as arising from modification of the shapes of the as-grown QWs due to diffusion of In out of the well material. This process is enhanced by diffusion of vacancies generated near the sample surface by ion implantation. QWs with compositions near the critical thickness exhibit different behaviour from that of fully pseudomorphic layers, due to the presence of dislocations in these layers.     

Temperature dependence of the inelastic scattering in a GaAs/n-AlGaAs selectively doped heterojunction with InGaAs quantum dots

Inelastic scattering processes of two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) have been investigated in a inverted GaAs/n-AlGaAs heterojunction with self-organized InGaAs quantum dots (QDs) embedded near the 2DEG channel where the electron population in the QDs is controllable by the gate voltage V_g. By analyzing magnetoresistance, the inelastic scattering time τ_ε have been evaluated as functions of V_g at 0.6, 0.8, 1.2, and 1.7 K. It is found that τ_ε increases with V_g below 0.8 K and decreases above 1.2 K, which suggests that the dominant scattering mechanisms below 0.8 K and above 1.2 K are different. To interpret this behavior, we have calculated the inelastic scattering time theoretically. It is found that the experimental data are well explained by a theoretical model where a 2D electron is considered to be inelastically scattered both by the other 2D electrons and by the trapped electrons in QDs. It is also found that the 2DEG–2DEG scattering is dominant at low temperature, while the 2DEG-QDs scattering becomes important as the temperature increases.     

Resonant photorefractive effect in InGaAs/GaAs multiple quantum wells

Semi-insulating InGaAs/GaAs multiple quantum wells are fabricated by metal-organic vapor-phase epitaxy and proton implantation. Two-wave mixing gain and four-wave mixing diffraction efficiency are measured at wavelengths of 0.91-0.94microm in the Franz-Keldysh geometry. We observe a large photorefractive effect caused by the excitonic electro-optic effect. The maximum diffraction efficiency reaches ~1.5x10(-4) .     

Exciton line broadening in strained InGaAs/GaAs single quantum wells

We report the first observation of well-resolved exciton peaks in the room-temperature absorption spectrum of the strained In_0.20Ga_0.80As/GaAs Single Quantum-Well (SQW) structure. The best fit of the exciton resonances gives the conduction-band offset ratioQ _c=0.70±0.05. The strength of the exciton-phonon coupling is determined from linewidth analysis and is found to be much larger than that of strained InGaAs/GaAs MQW structures.     

Transverse charge-carrier transfer in selectively doped GaAs/AlGaAs semiconductor heterostructures with longitudinal current flow

Photoreflectance spectra of selectively doped GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructures are studied under the conditions of direct current flow along the structure layers. Using a model developed for the spectra, variations of the internal transverse electric fields are calculated for longitudinal current flow. It is proved experimentally that even a weak heating of electrons in such structures leads to a spatial redistribution of electrons in the direction transverse to the heterostructure layers.     

Emission and strain in InGaAs/GaAs quantum wells with InAs quantum dots obtained at different temperatures

The photoluminescence (PL), its temperature dependence and X ray diffraction (XRD) have been studied in the symmetric In_0.15Ga_0.85As/GaAs quantum wells (QWs) with embedded InAs quantum dots (QDs), obtained with the variation of QD growth temperatures (470–535 °C). The increase of QD growth temperatures is accompanied by the enlargement of QD lateral sizes (from 12 up to 28 nm) and by the shift non monotonously of PL peak positions. The fitting procedure has been applied for the analysis of the temperature dependence of PL peaks. The obtained fitting parameters testify that in studied QD structures the process of In/Ga interdiffusion between QDs and capping/buffer layers takes place partially. However this process cannot explain the difference in PL peak positions.     

Giant Zeeman splitting of light holes in GaAs/AlGaAs quantum wells

We have developed a theory of the longitudinal g-factor of light holes in semiconductor quantum wells. It is shown that the absolute value of the light-hole g-factor can strongly exceed its value in the bulk and, moreover, the dependence of the Zeeman splitting on magnetic field becomes non-linear in relatively low fields. These effects are determined by the proximity of the ground light-hole subband, lh1, to the first excited heavy-hole subband, hh2, in GaAs/AlGaAs-type structures. The particular calculations are performed in the framework of Luttinger Hamiltonian taking into account both the magnetic field-induced mixing of lh1 and hh2 states and the mixing of these states at heterointerfaces, the latter caused by chemical bonds anisotropy. A theory of magneto-induced reflection and transmission of light through the quantum wells for the light-hole-to-electron absorption edge is also presented.     

Exciton optical absorption in disordered,strained InGaAs/GaAs single quantum wells

The absorption coefficient spectrum of undoped, disordered InGaAs/GaAs single quantum wells is calculated within the parabolic band approximation in this compressively strained structure. Results are presented for light propagating normal to and along the plane of the quantum well, taking into consideration the 1S-like exciton and all bound states, including the 2D enhancement Sommerfeld factor. The results presented here show that the exciton peaks in TE polarization remain constant with disordering and exhibit a larger wavelength shift than in TM polarization. The absorption edge in disordered InGaAs/GaAs, which is a function of the strain and interdiffusion, can be tailored to the desired wavelength around 1.0 μm. These results can be of interest in the design of photonic devices on a single substrate.